


Fiorina

by The_Exile



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pets, Randomness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 05:33:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5322362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Decus secretly adopts a baby Phoenix, much to Vesper's dismay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fiorina

Decus grinned in delighted mischief, then ran his broad, strong fingers through his short, frizzy, literally flaming red hair, parting it to one side. His flame was low to avoid hurting the other man, as great an effort on his part as running it full strength. The gesture covered the cybernetic scope where the eye should be on the leering, demonic, proudly burned side of his face, to reveal something moving around underneath. Whatever it was, it let out a series of trills and peeps, flaps its stubby wings ineffectively, then pecked Vesper's outstretched hand. If he hadn't used his mechanical arm, Vesper would have been pecked clean through his hand and burned at the same time. The disheveled ball of juvenile feathers, various shades of orange, gave a distinct impression of being annoyed at the intrusion into its comfortable nest that was suddenly a lot less warm. Maybe it had been asleep. Vesper didn't really understand avian body language, especially not those of birds so rare they were considered mythical on some planets.

"Do you like her? I will allow you to suggest a name," he said, grinning, "She took a long time to mature, so I have been sheltering her from the outside world, but soon she will leave the nest. I will have to teach her to fly. I am thinking of taking her Spiculing with me so that she can feel what it is like up in the air. I can drop her just before I land, then try a slightly greater distance, and so on, until she can join me on her own. What do you think?"

"Um..." Vesper rose one bushy eyebrow, his pencil moustache curled by a confused frown, "How long have you had her?"

"Oh, ever since the last time I was cruelly left alone," he said, "I was wondering what it would be like to become a bird and fly out of the window, to spy on them unseen. And then it came to me... I could train a bird! It could be my eyes and ears in the outside world!"

"So you thought you'd raise a phoenix in your hair? And nobody noticed? For six months?"

"Nobody ever notices what I do unless I am incinerating something they wish to preserve. I am terribly lonely," he sighed theatrically. 

"I'm sorry I'm away so often," said Vesper, reaching out a hand to pet the chick, ignoring its attempt to peck and melt through the second joint of his middle finger, "It's close to the big day, we've had dangerous intruders on the lower floors, then Gabriel has this big idea about trying to petition the Guild to revoke our lifetime ban." 

"Humph. They are biased against me," he folded his arms and pouted. 

"Actually, I think they're biased against all of us, especially Gabriel. They're Labyrinth Guardians. They want to guard Labyrinths. Our stewardship over Phynal isn't enough. Our plans for the future will cause too much property damage to other people's Labyrinths, or at the very least, cause other Guardians to lose ownership of their land without good reason."

Decus snorted again, "We can take the Universe, so we should. They're the ones who aren't strong enough to protect them. And they are scared of true ambition."

"Lots of people are less than enthusiastic about the potential destruction of the Universe, Decus."

"Because they are not strong enough to preserve it," opined Decus, "And it does not excuse them from forgetting to invite me along every single time. It is their fault, or Gabriel's, and Gabriel is our leader, so he would not forget such a vital thing."

"I think it's just that they remember the last time you came round and immolated their Guild house. They probably worked out that they can't fireproof their property against you."

"Bah. If they asked me, I would give every building a thorough testing, suggest improvements AND tell them about our new fire and petrification insurance policy!"

Vesper sighed, "Remember that we decided not to do the insurance thing any more because it scared Ruprecht? Anyway, you would not enjoy it. Too much sitting around, discussing petty politics, cat-fighting, and we never get allowed back in anyway."

"I have better things to do," he agreed, plucking the phoenix chick out of his hair and placing it onto his other outstretched hand with uncharacteristic delicacy. He slowly turned up the fire around the one hand, adding mesmerising illusions that danced in the flames, bemusing the chick so that it stopped shrieking and pecking at him, "Do you think a mithril ribbon would look nice around his neck? Maybe with a ruby. Berle is good with metal. He can craft it."

Vesper leaned in to take a better look, suddenly feeling a little dizzy at the mix of smells that accompanied his long-time companion, arousing all sorts of sensations and emotional reactions.

"Fiora," he suddenly announced. It was Decus' turn to blink, his broad face curling into a frown.

"Or Fiorina," continued Vesper, "I think she's more of a Fiorina. She's going to be an elegant, majestic bird when she grows up. She needs a proper lady's name."

"You are wiser on these matters than I," said Decus, showing off two sharp teeth.

"You do realise how large they grow? They're related to XINE. They need full run of our floor, at least, maybe even the dungeon. I'm not sure Cyril will like it."

"How will it be different to other monsters roaming this tower? I will not let it in his office or Indalecio's, only my friends and your friends if they want to see her. I thought maybe Ruprecht would want to look after her sometimes when we are busy," he suddenly creased his brow, "Or do you think I need to keep her nearby to protect her from intruders?"

"Trust me, that bird is going to eat so many intruders, it'll need a roaming world guardian license to be legal in a dungeon," said Vesper.

"Good," announced Decus, "And it will be reborn from the ashes."

"Yes, it will."

"That means I can keep it whatever Indalecio does or does not do to the Universe," reasoned Decus, "Like your statue garden."

Only Decus knew that Vesper collected statues of the prettiest, rarest and most impressively powerful life forms he could manage to petrify and placed them in a walled garden. It was one of his many little eccentricities that he knew required a mind as twisted as his own or Decus', maybe Shigeo's at a push, to appreciate the hidden beauty of. Cyril would probably just yell at him. 

"We have pets, now. We are making the place like a real home," commented Decus as he walked over to the tea kettle and began boiling it with one hand while shooing away Fiorina, who wanted to bathe in the scalding water, with the other. 

"Yep. Getting along like a house on fire," Vesper allowed a rare soft smile to alight onto his features. He still looked like a barely restrained battle Doberman. If anything, his occasional smile only unsettled his rivals and made them even more scared of him. The effect worked about as well on Decus as trying to keep him at bay with a flamethrower. Not that trying to drive Decus away would ever do anything more than leave Vesper lonely again, and give him the excuse he needed to really become even more mechanical and murderous than Shigeo.

His feet were mechanical as well. Which was fortunate, as Fiorina had waddled up to him and tried to eat his toes.

**Author's Note:**

> Level boss conventions are a personal headcanon thing. They typically turn up in my dreams just when I forget to heal and save before what I think is a normal boss fight.


End file.
